Iron
Nairn Museum

This is a Victorian example of a household iron. Hollow on the inside, this ‘box iron’ was heated by a piece of hot iron, known as a slug, and then placed inside the space at the back. Box irons came with two slugs, so that one could be used in the iron whilst the other was being heated up on the fire.

These would have been common household objects in the Victorian period, as they were much lighter and easier to use than earlier flat irons. But irons were not a Victorian invention! Metal pans filled with hot coals were used for smoothing fabrics in China in the first century BCE.